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I waited for the fire to take and then added a couple of bigger logs and closed the front of the wood burner. I dropped onto my backside and hooked my arms around my shins, watching the flames. My eyes were sore and heavy, and I felt myself drifting.
A shuffle of skin and cloth against the floor pulled me from my doze. Kaja had scooted even closer. She was still shivering, but I didn’t know if that was from the cold or fear.
“You’re trembling,” I said.
She nodded. “It’s the adrenaline combined with the cold.”
“Come closer then.”
I shouldn’t care if she was shaking. She was nothing to me.
She moved closer still, so she was right beside me. It felt good to have a female body close again. Her shoulder pressed to mine, as though she was seeking both heat and comfort from me, even though I should be the last person she should take that from. I was the one who’d put her in this situation—not including her father—and she should want to stay as far away from me as possible.
The fire snapped and sparked. Her weight leaned into me, and her head dropped to my shoulder. If anyone looked in on this scene, they’d have thought we were lovers spending a romantic moment in front of the fire. Only if they’d spotted Kaja’s hands still tied behind her back would they realise things weren’t quite how they first appeared.
She let out a deep sigh and sank closer.
I froze, my senses on high alert. The soft swell of the side of her breast heated my arm. I hadn’t offered her anything else to wear, since I didn’t have anything to give her, and the skimpy top she’d been wearing when I snatched her did little to hide her tits. The twin peaks of her nipples poked out against the material. The way her arms were pulled behind her back didn’t help, the position pushing her breasts out. Her head was close to my nose, and the scent of her hair wafted over me. The warmth of her thigh imprinted upon mine.
I felt myself stirring in response. My reaction surprised me. I hadn’t even thought about being with another girl since Jodie.
“What are you doing?” I asked her.
She blinked up at me innocently. “Nothing. Just trying to stay warm.”
This was a trick of some kind. It had to be. What possible reason could she have for getting this close to me? My hands had left bruises around her throat. She should hate me.
“Will you untie me?” she asked. “Just for a minute. I’ve shown you can trust me.”
Ah, so that’s what this was all about. “Why this time?”
“So I can warm my hands.”
I arched my eyebrows. “You think I’m going to fall for that?”
Her lips parted, the pink of her tongue behind white teeth. “Fall for what?”
Goddamn it. My cock hardened. I hadn’t had sex since Jodie died, and though my heart had died with her, my dick clearly hadn’t.
“You’re playing with fire, sweetheart.”
“Who said anything about playing?”
I twisted to face her and caught her by the throat, my fingers matching the exact places of her bruises, and I yanked her face up to look into mine. “You really want to do this?”
Her eyes widened. “I was just trying to stay warm, that’s all.”
Had I completely misread the signals? I glanced down at the front of her camisole, where the material made it clear she wasn’t warm, unless, of course, her nipples were hard for a different reason. I decided to find out for myself.
“You need warming up here.” With my other hand, I pushed up her top and cupped one of her tits. She was without a bra—something that hadn’t gone unnoticed by me.
I couldn’t help but compare her to Jodie. Jodie had always been voluptuous, her tits big and heavy, where Kaja’s were small and round, barely filling my palm. Her nipple pressed against my skin, absorbing my warmth, and my cock stirred again.
Fuck, I shouldn’t let this happen.
Guilt filled me, but not because I’d kidnapped a girl. No, I felt guilty for touching her like this when in my heart I was still engaged to Jodie. I shouldn’t let this go any further, but my body cried out to be touched. It had been a matter of months, but it felt like years. To go from fucking at least once a day, if not more, to nothing, had made me desperate. I’d thought I wasn’t interested in anyone else, but now this dark-haired raven with her bruises and pale skin and pink mouth was doing crazy things to my insides.
Raven.
